Accelerate electric vehicle targets to more than half of new car sales, urges new report

A key Government advisory body has called for an electric vehicle boom to help meet legally binding climate targets.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an independent advisory body, has urged the Government to set a target that electric vehicles should make up at least 60pc of new cars and vans sold in the UK by the end of the next decade.

The drive should include financial support, tax incentives and a strategy to roll out electric vehicle charging infrastructure as well as tougher emissions standards on new car sales beyond 2020, the committee said.

The committee’s chairman, Lord Deben, said:

“The UK has shown global leadership on climate change, but progress will stall at home without urgent further action.

“New plans, for a new Parliament, are needed as a matter of urgency to meet our legal commitments, grasp the opportunities offered by the global low-carbon transition, and protect people, businesses and the environment from the impacts of a changing climate,”

he added.

The report warned that it is “no longer justified or wise” to delay the publication of the Government’s emissions reduction plan which is required by law.

The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 42pc from 1990 levels, even while GDP climbed by 62pc, in large part due to the shutdown of coal-fired power plants and a threefold increase in renewable energy in less than ten years.

But the committee’s report to parliament has warned that this progress will not be enough to meet the UK’s legally binding target to cut emissions by 57pc from 1990 by the end of the next decade unless the Government kickstarts a major drive to roll out electric vehicles.

The call comes in the wake of major commitments from the governments of China and India which have both set ambitions electric vehicle targets to help tackle air pollution.